How Are Decision Makers Changing?

Ben (00:25)
Welcome back to another episode of Content Amplified. Today I'm joined by Megan. Megan, welcome to the show. Yeah, Megan, I'm excited. This is gonna be a fun conversation. Even just a few minutes beforehand we were talking, I'm already excited to dive in. But before we do that, let's get to know you. Let us know a little bit about your background and work history.

Megan Noorman (00:30)
Thank you.

Ben (00:44)
And then our favorite question is, do you love about content and marketing?

Megan Noorman (00:47)
Sounds good. Well, my name is Megan Norman. I'm vice president of brand for Zen Media. We're an end to end marketing agency. So we do everything from search marketing, social media marketing, content marketing, obviously, PR, really the whole scope of marketing. I got my start as a writer. So my background is in writing. I worked in writing and publishing. I taught English for a while and where I moved into marketing was largely

due to my interest in what drives people, what makes people want to read a piece, what compels them, and that sort of shifted into why people buy what they buy. You know, we have such a consumer focused culture in some ways, which has its pros and cons, but why are we the way that we are? So that's how I got into marketing.

Ben (01:37)
I love it. That's amazing. So what do love about content? That's another follow up question like what drives you in that space?

Megan Noorman (01:42)
Sure.

I have always loved writing. Since I was a young child, I told my mom I wanted to be a writer. Sometimes it was a poet, sometimes it was a fiction writer, sometimes it was a journalist. But I've always loved writing, so that's foundational to my love of content. But then a lot of it is about, again, connecting with people, creating stories that are engaging and compelling, and then reaching people

in ways that are interesting and love being creative in a space that also has an interesting action or impact tied to it.

Ben (02:21)
That's amazing. Well, Megan, I am fascinated by the subject we're going to talk about. it's really how to understand today's decision makers. And no matter what we do in marketing, we always have to keep this in mind. It doesn't matter what channel we're over, what industries we're focused on. Really, when it comes down to it, it's about connecting with decision makers and giving them what they need, regardless of their stage of the journey or funnel.

or of that flywheel, whatever you want to, whatever analogy you use to describe where they're at in their journey. So when we're looking at this understanding decision-making, really there's this shift. Things have been changing and going almost in a new direction because of technology, the macro economic situation, but really Megan, when it comes down to it, where was decision-making and how is it changing today and tomorrow?

What should be aware of in that whole shift in what that process looks like?

Megan Noorman (03:17)
Yeah, so this is a great question. And I think...

If you're in the space and you're running into issues with your marketing not being effective, it could largely be from a shift not only in the technology and how that impacts our decision making, but also in generational changes. So a big issue that we see is that you might lock in on a marketing strategy that works for you, and then year over year, it starts to decline in its efficacy.

largely

because of the nature of generational changes, right? So millennials are actually becoming the most powerful B2B buyers. And that surprises people. And I think a lot of people still think of millennials as being in their 20s, young, maybe irresponsible, as sort of those stereotypes. But the truth of the matter is, millennials are in their 40s, they're in their 30s. They have 10, 15, 20 years experience. So they're moving.

into these decision-making roles, whether it's a director or VP, a manager. So that's a big shift. Millennials are very different than the baby boomer generation and even the Gen X generation. think we all know millennials hate getting on the phone.

They hate it. They want to make their decisions primarily through research. And they want to do that research themselves. They don't want to sit on the phone with a salesperson. They're very skeptical. They don't trust salespeople. What they trust are their peers and other sort of credible sources. So that's where we're seeing a huge rise in the value of PR.

where you're getting placements from credible people credible publications that are either in your trade or maybe they're top tier that are well respected. then we're also seeing dark social take off. And what that means is we don't really want people to have insight into what we're doing and what we're thinking about. We don't comment, for the most part, on other people's social media posts, certainly not with businesses, unless

we're complaining. We don't even like posts as much as we used to and that's because Millennials are skeptical and and they're private and they see some of the fallout from being too open on social media, right? We all know about different people who maybe made comments they shouldn't have made and so Millennials are becoming very private buyers.

Ben (05:23)
you

Megan Noorman (05:43)
The ways that they're moved are through in-depth research. The ways that they're moved are through understanding those influential, credible voices. That's why thought leadership is so important. then they're also moved by Gen Z.

Gen Z again, it's there's this perception that they're kids, but they're in their 20s and they're joining the workforce and if you think about who you ask to research a tool, I don't have time to research a tool, but I do have employees, smart, engaged employees who know a lot about technology and I say, research this tool, give me your short list and I might say look into these two because I've heard of them and they're good.

But they're actually having a big influence and they have such a big influence on the culture

And the culture hits all of us from a buyer's perspective. So I think understanding the generational changes is important. I would never downplay the importance and value of these older generations because our older generations are living significantly longer. The largest generation in the coming years is going to be senior citizens. So there is still an impact there. But the decision makers fundamentally

want to do their own research. They want to do a ton of research. They don't want to get on the phone. They don't want to talk to a salesperson. They're going to read reviews. They're going to look at the website and find all the detailed information. They're going to go sources. They're going to go to reviews on TikTok, reviews on YouTube. it's just a very different way to make a buyer's decision. The touch points have to be

significantly in volume. It used to be, you know, seven, six, now it's 20, 30. that's just due to the fact that you've got a discerning audience who doesn't want to get on the phone. So that's a huge difference. I would say...

way we search is different because of that desire to do in-depth research. So we're not necessarily always going to Google. Now Google is incredibly important. All search engines are. We're still fundamentally hitting Google at some point. But we search through social media. We look up, the software seems okay. I'm going to look it up on YouTube and watch some demos. I'm going to watch a couple of reviews. If you're a beta C buyer, TikTok is huge for

reviews. So that's another area and B2B is going to get there. It just is. We know that. So you have to think about research on all levels. then AI, that's going to be a huge one, too. People go to chat, GBT, they go to perplexity. one of the ways we do research. And, you know, we've had search engine optimization, SEO, that's been huge for a long time. Now we're seeing research engine optimization.

That's

AI's version of optimization. That's REO and a lot of businesses aren't prioritizing that as a search strategy yet. So, you know, even when you go to Google, you've got AI summarizing, pointing you. These are the credible sources. That's a different way to research and a different way to search. So that's another big change. And then the last thing that I would say, which it's not new, but I think we still have to

continually say it and push it is B2C and B2B buyers are different and what their main differences is what motivates them to buy. So a B2C buyer they are worried about regret. I don't want to make this purchase. It doesn't turn out to be good or the way I had expected. Now I need to go through the hassle of returning it.

or now I'm just eating that cost because I'm too lazy to return it. That's me. I hate making returns. So it's this regret, right? Or a small purchase, you know, something that's not very costly, that doesn't have a long sales cycle. It's just, ugh, I wish I hadn't have bought this. B2B buyers are trying to avoid blame. Making the wrong purchase decision can impact their reputation.

their boss is going to be like, come on, dude, like, why didn't you do better research? Their coworkers are going to be annoyed with them, depending on what the software or the tool or the purchases in general. So we've got B2C regret, B2B blame. And blame is part of why the sales cycle is longer. And it's part of why the research is so much more intense because

being blamed is more painful than facing regret. Regret is personal, blame is public, right? So that's the other big differentiator I would say in terms of how buyers have changed or how buyers are different than maybe they're perceived.

Ben (10:31)
I love that. And that is, in my opinion, one of the best explanations of what the buyer's journey and what decision makers look like nowadays. That was amazing. And it's true. I really resonate with this concept of blame. You know, the, the phrase is no one ever gets upset at you for buying like the leading industry tool, like Salesforce, even if everyone hates it. It's like, Hey, well, it's, it's Salesforce. Like you can't get mad at me.

Megan Noorman (10:54)
exactly.

Ben (10:58)
That is why it's hard for incumbents to come into the space. So with all of this, and you shared so many good thoughts as a marketer, specifically in how I use content, how can I shorten the buyer's journey and make it easier, adapt what I'm doing to really cater to the needs of these buyers, these millennials, the Gen Zs that are doing the research, things of that nature.

How do I utilize this awesome is not a channel, it's a part of every channel, but how do I use content to really make that journey even better?

Megan Noorman (11:33)
Yeah, that's a great question. So a big part of it is understanding the psychology of your ideal customer. So we talk about ideal customer profile or your understanding their specific psychology helps a lot in terms of knowing what they need to feel compelled to make a decision, right? So that's kind of a given. think most marketers are aware of that. But the other thing really is creating more content,

more touch points. If you want to speed up the buyer's journey, you need to be hitting those touch points constantly, constantly getting in front of them. I work for an end to end marketing agency and so much is you need to be in front of them constantly. You need to be everywhere so that they have this sort of visibility bias of like, I need this software. You know, the one I keep hearing about it's this one, right?

You need to build brand loyalty because we're still so impacted by our peers and our friends I think so many people Will be like hey, I know you use this software Like i'm thinking about getting a software of this nature. What do you think? Do you like it? Is it good? so a lot of it is building brand loyalty too, and that's sort of this function of

both carrying on what you're doing in the marketing space, past marketing and into sales and into your customer journey and so forth, but it's also

creating a strong mission, creating something likable or interesting, right? And it doesn't even need to be likable necessarily. Like Wendy's is a great example in a consumer space of a brand that intentionally doesn't wanna be likable. They like to be sort of rude and sassy and people love it. So it's really understanding who your buyers are and what is going to make them like your brand.

Ben (13:11)
you

Megan Noorman (13:24)
What is going to make them feel good about being a part of your brand, whether that's a mission, whether that's a fun, playful voice, carrying through that marketing. then the other thing is, especially in a B2B space, most of your buyers are not ready to buy.

Like sales cycles are extremely long in some cases and they're longer now than they used to be because of that desire to do so much research. So if your buyers are largely not ready to buy right now,

You need to get them now to see your brand, to see the value, to constantly hear about it, because that's how you get on the shortlist. That's how you become one of those default brands. Like nobody's gonna blame me for choosing this brand, because they're everywhere.

Right? So hitting those, you know, 95 % of people who are not ready to buy is what shortens the sales cycle when they are ready to buy. So the CEO of my company, Shama Heider, she talks about this all the time and also that regret versus blame. And that's so foundational to the way that, you know, I work with clients in a marketing space.

The other thing is, you know, there's only a couple ways we can understand the buyer's journey because of dark social. So some of it is just knowing, knowing your buyers, knowing how they behave, knowing what moves them in their psychology. But another thing is just asking, asking your buyers, where did you hear about us? What do you like about our product? What don't you like about our product? You know, what are the biggest pain points that we solve for you?

You can get a lot of the information from sales, from that end of funnel interaction. Hey, what did they tell you? What did they want to make sure your product solved? And creating content that answers those questions. So there's a lot of different ways. And I think.

One of the things that's really important to think about in today's marketing landscape is that buyers are really smart. They're really discerning. So we can't pull the wool over your eyes. If your product's not strong, you can do whatever you want to market it, but the bad reviews are gonna kill you.

Ben (15:23)
you

Yeah, that is very true. love it. Megan, and we didn't even get to dive into AI's impact on all of this. That's a whole fun discussion that you were mentioning that, you know, we could go on for hours about this, but Megan, to keep these episodes short, we've come out of time. Megan, if anyone wants to reach out and further the conversation online and connect with you, how and where can they find you?

Megan Noorman (15:53)
Well, LinkedIn is probably the easiest way to find me. I'm pretty active there. I think that's how we connected. So I would say DM me, friend me. I'm always happy to connect. That's where I'm easiest to find.

Ben (16:06)
Love it. Megan, again, this has been an amazing episode. Thank you for your insights. It sheds a really good light on what decision makers are looking at and how to get in front of them. I think this is going to be an episode. A lot of people come back to you. So thank you again so much for the time today.

Megan Noorman (16:23)
Thank you, Ben. It's been so great talking to you. So nice to meet you.

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